by Jayne Blue
HOLD TRILOGY
Book Two
By
Jayne Blue
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Text copyright ©2015
Jayne Blue
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the author or publisher, except where permitted by law or for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
A Message from Jayne Blue
Books by Jayne Blue
Bonus Excerpt from WLUV Book One – The Consultant
(Featuring Hold’s Meyer Thomson’s Billionaire Brother)
The Men of the Great Wolves M.C.
Chapter One
Craddock
There were two blonde-haired women all over him. Probably overkill but the meaner you were the more some women loved it.
One was pushing her fake tits up against him. The other woman was going for it over his jeans in the middle of the hotel party. No shame. He had to respect that.
He was the official bad guy of the MMA world after tonight, and these two could not get enough. The one, what was her name? Darcy? Marcy? Who the fuck knew? Her top was pulled down, nearly exposing the areola if he wanted to look. He did not want to look. He was thinking about someone else and it was her body that he craved.
She had lied and betrayed him, and he was sure of it, with his enemy no less.
He had had taught one lesson tonight, now it was time to teach another. He knew she was looking for him. He could smell her in the room, sensed a change in the electricity the minute she walked in, before he ever saw her. She was working her way through the party, and then she would wind up here and see this little scene. He had set it up for just that purpose.
He reflexively reacted to knowing she was near, not the other blonde’s hands. He did not want either of these two women, but she would think he did. He wanted her to think it, drink it in, and feel the same hurt he felt, only worse.
There she was, Cassidy Parker: gorgeous, enraged and surprisingly, fucking violent.
She ripped one of the blond women from his lap. "Holy crap, Craddock thought as he watched Cassidy Parker go ape shit on Darcy? Marcy?
He realized the other blonde was heading into the fray to then gang up on Cassidy. He wanted to make her jealous, not hurt her. Craddock restrained one bitch and made eye contact with his friend, Jessie.
“Get her out of here.” Jessie got his message and lifted little Cassidy, all kicking legs and flying hair, and carried her up and out of the room.
Craddock kept a watchful eye over the top of the increasingly out of control party, an advantage of being over six feet tall. She was out, safe, she was surely pissed off, but he hoped that she was also heartbroken.
Good. It served her right. This is how it feels Cassidy Parker, when the only one you live for kicks you in the gut. It feels like a thousand hot needles. It feels like darkness has moved over the sun.
Craddock Flynn shrugged off the two disappointed blondes. They had served their purpose.
Then he slammed the door shut in the only place Cassidy had ever been: his heart.
Cassidy
She had given him everything. She opened herself up in ways that made her blush, even now, on the cab ride away from the hotel, away from Craddock.
Cassidy Parker had no idea how this had gone so wrong. She loved him - he loved her? Why was he with those women? It made her physically ill. She thought for a moment she might vomit in the back of the cab. She took a deep breath, but it hitched, and a sob escaped.
“You alright, miss?” the cabdriver asked.
“Yep, just get me to the hospital.” She was not going to break down in front of this stranger.
Cassidy pulled her coat tighter around her middle. The searing heat that had boiled her blood when she saw Craddock with those women was draining away. She was cold. She didn’t think she would ever be warm again.
She had given the best of herself to him and he didn’t want it. He had seen every part of her, and it still wasn’t good enough to keep him.
Well, damn him. Damn Craddock Flynn to hell! Cassidy rubbed the tears away from her eyes.
Her friend needed her. Her friend, no matter how much Craddock wanted to make it seem like men only wanted her for sex, or whatever was in his twisted brain, she knew Zeke was her friend. She had not done one thing to deserve suspicion. This is what happened when you were in a relationship with a paranoid, overprotective fighter. He won and she lost.
Cassidy decided she was going to be a good friend to Zeke. She could do that because she could never be a girlfriend again. It was too much. She had poured her soul, body, and heart into Craddock, only to have him crush every part of her.
The person she trusted with everything had just thrown it all away.
Craddock
The night his dreams came true was the worst night of his life. His phone lit up with an unfamiliar number but he answered.
“This is Meyer Thompson. Is this Craddock Flynn?”
“Yes.” His own voice sounded foreign to him. It was deeper, raw; he was having a hard time keeping the emotions of the night out of it. He had lost Cassidy, his gym and his hopes for a pro contract in the space of about an hour. Great Wolves Gym had kicked him out when he kneed Zeke Powell in the head. So much for loyalty.
He focused on the stranger, the famous stranger, on the other end of the line.
“We want to offer you a deal.” The information did not register. The winner of the Motown Smack Down Tournament he had been in would get a deal with the pro league, 21st Century Fight League, but he had not won. He had been disqualified.
“But I lost the fight. I thought that was the deal breaker.”
“Well, technically it was a no-contest end.”
“Yeah. So, I’m waiting to see if I am being kicked out of the sport and you’re offering me a deal? I’m a little confused here.”
“We want you to come to Vegas. We want to offer you a spot on Tough to the Top.”
Tough to the Top was the reality show that offered the winner a spot at a real 21C title.
“You want me to be a contestant? I don’t know. I never thought of getting into 21C that way.”
“Well, you just blew your chance of getting in with the tournament, didn’t you? Look, it’s two months of your life that could change your life. We pay your lodging and you get $25,000 for just being on the show. You will fight at least one qualifier and if you make it to the finale, you are guaranteed $250,000. If you win, you get half of a million, and a million-dollar 21C signing bonus.”
“And a belt.”
“Yep, your first major title.”
“No bullshit?”
“Jean Paul Garrison and Rontay Williams, to name a few, started on Tough to the Top. Good enough for you?”
“Yes, I’d say.” Both names were legends in the MMA world.
/> “We’re recruiting fighters from all over the world. You’re one of the biggest names in the Midwest, maybe even the country right now, so we want to see that brutality you showed at the Smack Down.”
“Are you sure about that? I did get kicked out, didn’t I?”
“You fight with passion, aggression and skill. As I said, you’re brutal. I need that in the 21C. If you show it on Tough to the Top, I can build you a following. It could make your career.”
Meyer Thompson knew what he was talking about. He turned MMA fighters into household names, even movie stars.
They wanted him to be the bad guy, the violent one, he knew. MMA was one-hundred-percent real; its marketing had shades of professional wrestling. Tough to the Top had a storyline; they played on the quirks and characters. But so what?
Bad guys could get big deals. He needed the cash; his mom and Dylan were on his mind again. Cash from the show could pay some of his mom’s cancer treatment bills.
It would mean leaving Michigan for at least eight weeks. He knew the only other reason to stay in Michigan was Cassidy, but she was gone. He had made sure of it.
If she were fucking around with Zeke Powell, he would be better off across a continent away from it.
He decided to push his luck with the billionaire on the other end of the phone. If they wanted bad guy, he would give it to them.
“Fine. I’m in, but I want $50,000 for the show.”
“You’re negotiating with me?” Meyer Thompson could afford it, and maybe the businessman who had built 21C from the ground up would at least respect Craddock’s attempt at negotiating.
Craddock heard a little laugh on the other end of his cell.
“Why are you worth double than the other guys on the show?” Thompson was interviewing him; he felt it already.
“You’ve already seen the reasons why. You’ll get blood, violence and maybe even sex. I’m worth three times that for your reality show.” Craddock was finished trying to reign in his aggressive nature for a woman, for anyone.
“And humility? Will I see any of that?”
“None.”
“It’s a deal, but if your housemates find out you’re getting more scratch then they are watch your back. They’ll be very angry.”
“I don’t give a fuck.”
“Good, that’s exactly what I’m paying you for. Contracts and travel info will be at your apartment tomorrow. Get packing.”
“Got it. Nice doing business with you, Mr. Thompson.”
“Nice? Yeah, that’s it. See you in Vegas.” The line went dead.
It was half the country away, Las Vegas, but it was better than staying here. He couldn’t stand to look at Cassidy Parker or Zeke.
He needed to be as far away as possible. He needed to forget how much he still wanted her. Even if she did want someone else.
Cassidy
“Look it’s for the best.” Bess was trying to convince her but her heart was broken. Nothing felt best about it.
“He was with other women, he is violent, he doesn’t trust you, and he darn near got kicked out of the sport that is his supposed to be his job. Do you think that is a good basis for a long standing relationship?”
“No.” Bess Geary was her friend, mentor, savior, but right now, nothing was making her feel any better.
“You’ve been in a few foster homes where daddy had a temper. Do you want that in your life?”
“No, but it wasn’t like that. It really wasn’t. Craddock was protective but I didn’t ever once think he would hurt me. He never laid a hand on me like that. It was the opposite.”
“Well tell that to what’s his name, The Preacher’s Son? He kicked the man in the head right?”
“Yes, he did.” Zeke Powell looked like a rag doll when he went down in a heap after Craddock’s low and illegal move.
“So try to remember that, not the other stuff okay honey?”
“You know when I close my eyes I see us happy and then out of nowhere I see him in that room with those two women.” She tried to squeeze out the memory again. It had been two days since she had seen the worst in Craddock and she was still reeling from it.
“You’re better off. Now let’s talk about your future.”
“I don’t feel that up to it.”
“Honey you have a broken heart. That’s going to be hard for a while, but you know what? It goes away. Time really does heal this. Before you know it, the right one will be in front of you and it will not be so tumultuous. Craddock was your walk on the wild side and I know you. You’re not very wild. Which is a very good thing.”
“If you say so. Doesn’t feel like that right now.”
“You want to be Ginny Weasley or Bella Swan?”
“Weasley, all the way.” She smiled into the phone. Bella Swan spent a lot of time sleeping and mooning over Edward. She knew because she had read Twilight at least three times. It was her addiction, romance novels.
“Okay let’s look at a few positives in the life of Cassidy Parker. You have the next year of school paid and you have the grant! You will still need to work for food and rent, so here is my question: do you stay at Great Wolves Gym? Are you quitting because of Craddock?”
“I’m not letting him force me out of a job.”
“Okay then, get some sleep, have some ice cream, whatever it takes. Tomorrow you are going to get out of bed, shower and show up at work. Oh and call that Wayne U number I gave you. Focus on setting up your internship for the grant, not tall, dark and assholey grant.
“Right, Bess, thank you.”
“You’re welcome, you’ll do the same for me next time I have a broken heart.”
They hung up.
Cassidy thought about those last moments with Craddock again. Every time she closed her eyes she him and the women with him. Why? What had made him want to hurt her so badly?
Although Bess had recommended ice cream, Cassidy did not want anything. She really did want to stay under the covers of her crappy bed and sleep. She had judged Bella Swan a bit too harshly. She was talking a good game with Bess most of the time in her own head. But her heart was crushed, and her body was cold.
Bess was right. Tomorrow. Tomorrow she would pretend she was strong. She would force herself to do something, go to work, be a person. Even though inside she was miserable and a piece of her was missing.
Craddock
He said his goodbyes to his mom and Dylan.
“Don’t gamble. That’d be really stupid.” His mother was not crazy about the idea of him being in Vegas. She was afraid he would be like his dad, a gambler, but he knew he was not. The only risks he took were in the ring, not with money.
“I’m not interested in that. I’m only interested in one thing. You know that.”
“And I noticed a deposit in my account?” His mother hated that she needed help, but he did not care.
“It was my first paycheck for the television show, half now, half in four weeks.”
“That will pay off my treatment bills you know?”
“Yeah, well what do you know? I’m good for something.”
“You’re good or everything. You just keep hiding it.” His mom hugged him.
Dylan was excited Craddock worried about him, their mom was tough. Dylan was a giant exposed nerve. Sometimes the slightest brush up against it caused a total short circuit in his ability to be in the world.
“Take care of Mom, don’t let her lift heavy stuff and bring the cans in. You got it?”
“Yep! On Thursdays the cans get brung in!” Dylan was a 250-pound eight-year-old, his older brother, but perpetually a kid.
“If anyone starts giving you shit on the bus you call Jessie, okay? I put him in your phone.”
Jessie Hoolihan was his workout partner and friend. He would kick ass if someone messed with Dylan. Still, it was not the same as Craddock watching over Dylan himself.
“Make sure to be very mean on that show Crad. Everyone knows Meyer Thompson likes brawlers. Okay?” Dylan had
never missed an episode of Tough to the Top. It was in his repertoire of shows like Sponge Bob.
“Got it. I love you.”
“Love you, too.” Craddock left them. He hoped the money he sent was just the beginning. His mom would finally see why he fought. She would see that it was worth the risk to his body. He was one of the best fighters in the country and it was time to get out of Grand City, Michigan and really prove it.
Craddock made one last stop before heading to the airport. Whitey Hoolihan, his coach, Jessie’s grandpa, had told him to stop by. He had been kicked out of the gym he called home all this time when he nearly killed Zeke Powell. Whitey was having a change of heart.
He showed up at the GWG gym early, before anyone but Whitey would be there. He would get in and out, no trouble. No Cassidy.
“Look, I was mad at you for what you did to Zeke.” Whitey explained.
“He had it coming.” Craddock was not going to apologize to Zeke or anyone. Cassidy was his and the two of them were sneaking around behind his back. He felt a white-hot rage even now, remembering her run to Zeke. Hearing Zeke taunt him in the ring about Cassidy, was a memory he was trying to suppress. It was not working; Vegas almost was not far enough away.
“I don’t want to get into this soap opera of yours. Here is what I wanted to tell you. The GWG corporate guys are behind you. They want us to be behind you too. They are excited that they got G-Man in the 21C and now you are on that show. Both from this one Great Wolves location.” Whitey put up a crooked index finger when he said one. His fingers were fingers in name only. They looked like crooked sticks held together by skin, the product of breaks and arthritis. No wonder he couldn’t do anything on the computer that the GWG sent.
“What I’m trying to say is good luck. You have not been kicked out. I was just pissed. But, it is best you are outta here for a while. The show is going to say you are a GWG fighter, good for their business, and I want you to know before you go, that you are one of my fighters. Always.” Whitey had trained him since he was a teenager.
“This is what you wanted to tell me? That Corporate says you should stand by me? I’m touched.” Craddock was still stung that Whitey had booted him after the Smack Down.
“Look, I want to tell you that I am proud of you. You lost your head, so did I at the Smack Down. You know I will be in your corner. Just call.” If Craddock were not in such a black mood, he would think maybe all was forgiven on Whitey’s end.
